Premier Prentice’s One Month Report Card

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These excerpts cover provincial political leadership appraisals in Alberta.

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Premier Prentice’s One Month Report Card

Jim Prentice was sworn in as Alberta’s new Premier on September 15, and in that short span of time since, has become the most popular provincial leader in Alberta (well, statistically tied with the Wildrose’s Danielle Smith, but more popular taking into account “negatives”).

Currently, 45% of Albertans say they approve of Jim Prentice as Premier, compared to 29% who disapprove and another 26% who unsure how to rate his performance to date. By comparison, Danielle Smith enjoys the approval of 44% of Alberta voters, Brian Mason (his last wave of polling as NDP leader) 33% and Liberal Raj Sherman 29%.

Prentice’s personal approval has steadily climbed since entering the leadership race – back in May, 34% of Albertans approved of “candidate” Prentice vs. 23% disapproved. It is a stark contrast to leadership ratings of the last two PC Premiers over the past 12 months – Alison Redford resigned from office registering a disastrous 18% approval (75% disapproval), while care-taker Premier Dave Hancock managed to climb to 34% approval, but never broke into “net positive” territory (40% disapproved at the peak of Hancock’s popularity).

Short story: Prentice’s honeymoon is underway, and he has room to grow. Typically, ~5% of respondents are uncertain about how to rate the performance of sitting premiers, which means roughly 20% of Albertans are “still evaluating”. Expect this level of uncertainty to drop by the new year.

Prentice’s personal popularity is behaving as one might expect for a new premier, the poll indicates that while Alison Redford may be gone, she is not necessarily forgotten (or forgiven) by voters. Voters respond positively to Prentice, but a more muted and skeptical in relation to “the party” and “government”. One example. When asked whether the provincial government is on the right track or wrong track since Prentice assumed the helm, 38% say “right track” compared to 21% “wrong track”. But a plurality are unsure – noting it is too early to tell.